Reformatting a Macbook

[Lord Diddy]

Hello everyone, I am reformatting a Macbook (system specs will be posted below) and I have some questions.

 

I've re-installed windows and Linux distros more times can i can remember but this would be my second time reformatting a Mac machine and I would like some advice. I am copying data to an external drive manually, but I see that there is a "time machine" application (along with Time Capsule), should I be using it as an easier way to backup or continue manually? does this backup work if you upgrade to a later OSX version? The mac is currently running 10.5.8, would an upgrade to 10.7 Lion be worth it or do a re install of Leopard? Is there anything significant between an install of window/linux as compared to a Mac re install? Also how do drivers work in OSX, are they automatically configured and updated after the install of OSX?

 

Any advice greatly appreciated, and excuse my awkwardly phrased questions

 

 

[hide= MacBook Specs][/hide]

[tripsis]

Time Machine is awesome and makes the whole backup/revert process very, very easy. I have used it myself as a regular backup device for years and recently used it when reformatting my Macbook and didn't have any issues. The whole thing was very seamless. I was running Leopard when I wanted to reformat. I easily backed up via Time Machine, wiped my drive, upgraded to Lion, and restored my backup.

[stevepole]

Don't upgrade your OS, my older MBP had similar specs to your MB and it didn't handle the new OS very well, and I eventually downgraded. Reformatting a Mac is really easy though, insert your installation disc and hold option during start up and and boot the installation disc, and it should give you an option to erase/reformat your HDD through disk utilities and do a clean install.

[Lord Diddy]

I just currently backed up the entire drive using time machine, but I do have some more questions.

 

Time machine backs up the entire hard drive, after doing a clean install the time machine backup seems counter-productive as it wont be a true clean install. Should I simply do a clean install, then install all the programs over and then manually drag the data (pictures, music, etc.) to the clean install? Or delete my current time machine backup and exclude everything except for my data files? Would Migration Assistant be of some assistance in this case?

 

I'm mainly looking for the best way to do a clean install while keeping only music pictures and documents. Also thinking that an upgrade from 10.5 (Leopard) to 10.6 (SL) would be beneficial, jumping to 10.7(lion) sounds like a bad idea from Stevepole's experience.

 

Lastly, is there any real use for an Airport Express? Macbooks come in with Wi-fi built in like any other computer, so it seems like a 99$ brick to me

[Kaphias]

I did a clean install on my MacBook about a year ago due to a lack of hard drive space. I had enough space on my external hard drive to do a full Time Machine backup as well as back up all my folders (pictures, applications I wanted, documents, music) individually. I wiped the computer's drive and did a clean install, then copied over files from my manual backup as I needed them. The nice thing about doing a Time Machine back up as well, even if you don't use it, is that it gets every file on your drive, so if you miss something in your manual backup you can manually go into the time machine backup folder and grab that one file you missed.

10.6 should be fine, that's what I'm running and my machine is older than yours.

Honestly there's no real need for an Airport Express unless your whole household uses Apple devices. For normal households it would just act as a wireless router.

[Lord Diddy]

Thanks to everyone who replied, it made this process much easier.

 

I installed 10.6 on the Macbook and used migration assistant to transfer back the files from the Time Machine backup, should have done the transfer manually but can't complain. Also iPhoto is a real pain in the *** to get working properly.

[Kaphias]

Thanks to everyone who replied, it made this process much easier.

 

I installed 10.6 on the Macbook and used migration assistant to transfer back the files from the Time Machine backup, should have done the transfer manually but can't complain. Also iPhoto is a real pain in the *** to get working properly.

I've always managed my photos manually since I tried iPhoto a number of years ago and didn't like it, but I'm going to give it another go when I get a new computer in a couple of weeks. Glad your transfer went well!

[tripsis]

What's the problem with iPhoto? It's been years since I originally set it up but I don't remember ever having any problems with it.

[Lord Diddy]

What's the problem with iPhoto? It's been years since I originally set it up but I don't remember ever having any problems with it.

 

Simply put its not possible to have iPhoto v9.0+ (from the iLife '11 suite) on SL 10.6.8. It forces you to upgrade to the latest version of iPhoto through software updates before using the program, but here's the kicker, you are required to upgrade to Lion for it to install (version 9.2.3 iirc). The remedy was simply installing iPhoto from iLife 09' version 8.x.x and it works properly.